Hal Baron, adviser to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, dies at 86

Hal Baron, shown in 2012, worked on education reform during the Harold Washington administration.

Hal Baron, shown in 2012, worked on education reform during the Harold Washington administration. (Chicago Tribune)

Joan Giangrasse KatesChicago Tribune

Hal Baron wasn't one to mince words when it came to his principles or his politics, his wife said.

"Hal was kind of a direct guy," said Paula, his wife of 63 years. "He liked getting straight to the heart of things."

A native of St. Louis, Baron came to Chicago in the 1950s and completed graduate studies in history at the University of Chicago. He went on to work as a teacher, researcher, political strategist and policy adviser focused on school, economic, housing and environmental issues.

As an adviser to Mayor Harold Washington, he took on education reform after a 19-day strike by teachers and other school employees in the 1980s. He also provided research on institutional racism in Chicago to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, which later became a key component of a landmark discrimination lawsuit that changed public housing in the city.

Baron, 86, died of cancer Jan. 18 at his home in the Edgewater Beach Apartments.

"Hal left a huge imprint on the city," said Frank L. Bixby, an honorary life director of the Chicago Urban League. "It was never about him, but always about his principles. He was a doer, an idea man, someone extremely effective in sharing his insights."

While chief policy adviser to Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s, Baron was named head of the Education Summit, a group formed by the late mayor and made up of business leaders, educators and parents to improve Chicago Public Schools.

Newsmakers and celebrities with Chicago ties who died in 2017.

Following the death of Washington in 1987, Eugene Sawyer became mayor and appointed Erwin France as his new adviser on education. Baron resigned, but before doing so he submitted his group's recommendations, among them targeting a reduction in the surging dropout rate and providing parents a greater voice in the management of schools.

"The summit has accomplished two big things: a design for reform which is doable in a big-city school system, and it has put together a coalition behind that reform, which is unprecedented in this city or any other," Baron told the Tribune in 1988, adding, "I dealt the mayor a winning hand. It`s a question now of how he plays his chips, and he has chosen France to do the betting for him."

Born and raised in St. Louis, the son of an attorney, Baron graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts and went on to earn a doctorate in history from the U. of C. in 1963. After teaching for a couple of years at City Colleges of Chicago, he became director of research for the Chicago Urban League.

Newsmakers and celebrities who died in 2017.

During that time, he provided background research to King to help address the issue of housing segregation in Chicago, both private and public.

That information later was integral in the Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority case that charged the CHA with violation of the U.S. Constitution by concentrating public housing in impoverished, African-American neighborhoods.

The court's ruling resulted in an end to nonelderly, CHA high-rises, replacing them with new scattered-site public housing in integrated communities.

"Hal wasn't one of those people quoted in the papers all the time," Bixby said. "He was the guy behind the scenes, gathering the research and doing the hard work that made an impact on thousands of lives."

From 1970 to 1982, Baron taught in the urban studies program for Associated Colleges of the Midwest, where he mentored hundreds of college students, many of whom now serve in high-profile careers in public policy.

"His approach to teaching was more like a community organizer," said former student Kari Moe, now chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota. "As part of the program, he introduced us to a range of politicians, activists, public servants, neighborhood and church leaders, all people involved in shaping public policy.

"He never told us what to think, but rather how to figure things out. He'd remind us that life isn't always as it seems and to take the time to look behind the curtain. He taught us not to be naive about power."

After serving with the Washington administration, Baron worked on the campaigns of several Democratic candidates, including U.S. Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois and Paul Wellstone, a U.S. senator from Minnesota. He was also an adviser to Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia during his run for mayor of Chicago in 2015.

In the 1990s, he focused his attention on community organizing in El Salvador and supporting job retraining in the city with the Jane Addams Resource Corp.

Over the past 50 years, Baron had an ongoing poker game with friends from all walks of life and was a member of a book club for 25 years.

During his last days, he was still taking calls from his bed, helping to advance his causes, in particular, strategizing to elect Ellison as chair of the Democratic National Committee.

"Hal was an inspiration to me and so many others, a shining example of a life well-lived," Moe said.

In addition to his wife, Baron is survived by two sons, Eddie and Mark; a daughter, Marnie Saeugling; a brother, Morton; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 11:30 a.m. March 12 in the Sister Jean Delores Schmidt Ballroom at Loyola University's Damen Student Center, 6511 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago.